Like a Ray in My Night (Part 4)

669 Money Is Not An Issue

Song Mu resisted until they had walked a full round but finally couldn't hold back. "Do they not have what we need?"

Tan Xin was pulled out of her thoughts and looked up at him in surprise. "Huh? Oh ... no, it's not that." She reached up and rubbed the top of her head, taking a moment to consider how to put it into words. "They do have a lot of ingredients that could be helpful. They don't have all the ingredients for any of the recipes I know though. This means that I will have to swap one or two ingredients in a recipe I am familiar with or come up with a new recipe that should work based on the properties of the ingredients we have found. It's ... complicated."

Song Mu wasn't sure whether to heave a sigh of relief or not. This meant that the situation wasn't completely hopeless but it wasn't easy to solve either. And the worst part was that he couldn't help her. "I trust in your abilities. But no matter which way you choose, as long as these have any effect at all, it'll be of help. So don't worry about making a mistake."

Tan Xin nodded. She had roughly the same view on the situation but, naturally, she wanted to get the most out of this. Depending on how well the pill or potion she made worked, the fight ahead of everyone would be more or less difficult. She couldn't go about this lightheartedly.

She hesitated and then started to walk through the store once again. This time, she pointed at a few ingredients. "This one should be good. It isn't that potent but can be combined with many other ingredients so I'd suggest we take it. This one is the opposite: Very effective in putting someone to sleep but the requirements on what it can be combined with are harsh. The worst part is that it will lose its efficacy if used in the wrong combination."

Song Mu nodded. "Unless you are very sure, let's not go with that one then. Having some effect is better than being surprised by not having any."

Tan Xin hummed. This was what she thought as well. She hesitated for a moment longer but finally picked up the paper and wooden scoop lying to the side and measured some of the first ingredient. As she did, her brows furrowed. "How much do you think we should take, senior martial brother Song?"

Song Mu watched her place a full scoop on the paper before she hesitated. To be honest, he wasn't sure how to answer that. He had no idea how much you needed to take down several dozen cultivators. After thinking for a moment, he could only answer vaguely. "I'd say don't be too conservative with your estimates. Having a little more is better than having too little."

Tan Xin nodded but still didn't take more. "This ... might be expensive though." Yes, even though this might not be the ingredient with the high efficacy, this was a place near the border region where nothing was growing thanks to the efforts of the demonic faction. Herbs shouldn't be cheap here.

Song Mu finally realized what she meant. Of course, Tan Xin didn't have doubts about the amount she needed to get the desired effect. She should be pretty clear about that. What she wasn't sure about were the funds they had at their disposal. As a younger disciple, she likely didn't have much money herself. Not to mention that those studying alchemy were notorious for using up more resources than they got in the early stages.

Song Mu faintly shook his head. "Don't worry about that. I have a lot saved up and the Elders gave me some money as well. No matter how much you take, it should be enough." Even though he wasn't that much older than Tan Xin, he was one of the disciples who tended to go out on more missions so the resources allocated to him by the sect weren't low. Plus, he came from a cultivation family who also liked to give him more resources so he could get ahead. His advancement was their pride as well, after all.

The two Elders both hadn't been stingy either. They knew how much of an advantage it would be to have Tan Xin succeed with this plan. Thus, they didn't want them to be limited by mundane reasons like a lack of money. Naturally, they had made sure they were set when they went out.

Tan Xin felt relieved when Song Mu said so and took two more scoops of the first ingredient. After thinking about it, she added a final one before folding up the lower half of the paper, creating a small bag that was still open at the top. Putting down the scoop, she awkwardly held the paper bag while glancing at the next ingredients.

Song Mu didn't say anything and simply took the bag from her, holding it as she started to make bags for the other ingredients as well. By the end of it, he was carrying ten paper bags. He made sure to keep them steady, not wanting the different ingredients to get into contact with one another. Even though he wasn't an alchemist, he still understood that this was something that wasn't allowed to happen.

Tan Xin looked at the bags for a moment and finally nodded. "That should be enough to make what we need. I took some more of each of them so I can try a little first. If it does work, we should have enough to use on all the disciples and maybe even some to spare. I also added a few ingredients that can cause other effects in case we need to change the plan or need something different later." She glanced over to the counter, not wanting to speak about it in too much detail where they could be overheard.

Song Mu nodded and motioned ahead. "Let's go pay then?"

Tan Xin hummed and followed him over. Finally, they left the store after the bags were all tightly closed and made their way back to the Teng Yong Sect's camp, hoping that they would make it in time.